Digging Up Dirt and Other Joys of Being a Genealogist

Thursday, March 23rd, 2017     by Debra DuPree Williams     Start the Conversation

by Debra DuPree Williams  @DDuPreeWilliams

My family considers my sister Bobbie and me to be the family genealogists. Neither of us is a professional, but we have learned a thing or two in our ventures into the world of family trees, graveyards, and lineage societies.


Genealogy Adventures
I should actually call these adventures as we have had quite the time in our search for the truth. One of our cousins shared her research saying, “Be sure to wear long pants, jeans preferred, and long socks. Tuck the bottoms of your jeans into your socks. Wear a long-sleeved shirt, a hat, and get some good bug repellent and spray generously.” My sister and I wondered what we had gotten ourselves into, but we were outfitted thusly the morning we met her on the side of the road in a teeny-tiny little town, far off the beaten paths, in south Alabama.

Grave of Sampson Worsley born in 1789

We climbed out of my car and followed her over ditches, through briar and bramble and some of the deepest woods you can imagine. But there, in a clearing, stood the stacked-stone grave of our three times great grandfather, Sampson Worsley, 1789-1863. Unbelievable. Now, you’d have to know that we had no prior knowledge of this man’s name. We only knew our Granny was a Smith and we knew her father, but that was as far as we could take that side. Here we stood at the grave of an ancestor with whom we had had no connections, but believe me when I tell you that every single time we found a “new” ancestor, be it his or her grave or even just a record of them, we were in tears. They are a part of who we are. Once we had taken our photos and paid our respects, our cousin took us to his home, which, at the time, was still standing. What a wonderful thing, to connect to our past.


Adventures in Georgia
On a trip to Savannah with my sister and her husband, we decided to take a side trip through Andersonville Cemetery in Georgia. Yes, that Andersonville. If you have never visited, you should. There is an outstanding museum there. It will be an experience that you will never forget. This is the final resting place of our four times great grandfather, Jeremiah DuPree. Grandpa Jeremiah is the person on whom Bobbie and I entered the DAR, our patriot. Because of finding him and proving his record for this great organization, we have formed lasting relationships with some of the finest women I know. And because of becoming a member, I have attended a genealogy workshop where I learned so much more than I had known about research and documenting discoveries. I helped my chapter registrar with proving the lineage of several prospective members of my Florida chapter. My sister became the registrar of her south Alabama chapter.
                                                                                              

Monument to Those Slain at The Alamo,
including William Barret Travis

The Alamo
I have found the final resting place of many generations of my family and my husband’s family. I made a connection with one of his distant cousins who informed me that my husband’s line includes his three times great uncle, William Barret Travis, of Alamo fame. His family had never known of this connection. I gifted him with membership in the Alamo Defenders Descendants Association, Christmas of 2013.


Adventures in Virginia
The most-moving find, to me personally, was finding my Great grandfather’s grave in the Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia. My mother’s father was thirty years older than her mother. He had grown children when he married my Granny, but he also had some little ones with whom he needed help after the death of his first wife. He and Granny married and they had eight children. Our mother was a twin, born last, making her the youngest of seventeen siblings.

I guess it was because Grandpa Wilburn, Mama’s daddy, passed away when Mama was only seven, that Mama didn’t know her Bass family very well. So many were grown and had moved away, Uncle Buck going all the way to Texas. She knew only a handful of cousins and that her grandfather’s name was Andrew. When my sister and I began our research on this family, we had no clue that we would be able to find so many Bass ancestors, including our nine-times great grandmother, Elizabeth, of the Nansemond Tribe, part of the Powhatan Nation, who married our nine-times great grandfather, John Bass, born in 1616.  

My son, Daniel, at the grave site of Andrew Jackson Bass,
his GG grandfather

In 2003 during a trip to Virginia, we stopped at the Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia. I became the first person in the family to ever stand at the grave of my great grandfather, Andrew Jackson Bass. He died there in 1862 of the measles. If you are ever there, look for grave S 333. This is my son pictured at his great, great grandfather’s grave. I had a search done on Andrew in the Alabama Archives which produced not only his service records, but a letter written by him to my great Grandmother, Ellen Davis Bass, just three weeks prior to his death. I transcribed this letter to the best of my abilities and it is available on ancestry. Let me tell you, the tears were falling as I stood at his grave and told him that his great granddaughter had come, and that his family loves him. You will know what I mean if you are into genealogy.

Hello Cousin
In 2015, I attended Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference for the second time. I was drawn to one woman in particular. I spoke to her many times during the week, but because our areas of interest were not the same, I didn’t spend a great deal of time with her until we wound up sitting at the same table during the awards banquet. We discovered that we are both classically trained vocalists. We became friends on social media and through a post on there one day, we discovered that we are cousins. Each of us displays within our gifts and talents, the ability to sing, to write, and to paint, traits passed down to us, at least in part, by our Bassano and Lanier families. Be kind to everyone. That person sitting next to you could be your kin.  

Bottom Line
Yes, genealogy can take one on some wild rides, from backwoods cemeteries, slipping and sliding on wet, red-clay Alabama roads, through national monument cemeteries, to historic sites like Andersonville and The Alamo. The one thing that connects all these places is the connection those interred have with those of us who are still living. Family lore is put aside, making way for facts backed up by records and now DNA testing.

The best thought to me is that we are all related. We all descend from the mind of Father God. We have all been created in His image, man and woman alike (Genesis 1:27). As we delve further into our lineage and more and more generations are revealed, it is easy to see how we all connect, across oceans and land masses. But it all still comes back to the Source of all life. In finding the truth about our lineage, we cannot help but run into The Truth. And it is the Truth that sets us free for all time.

Have you done family research? Did you find surprises along the way? Could we be cousins? Leave your comments in the section below.

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